Parties do not mirror existing conflicts but actively create and organize them

Evidence

There is also a demonstrable relationship between partisanship and high levels of voter participation. But, beyond the pragmatic things that parties do for democracy, there is this fundamental thing: parties translate the pluralism of society into organized political conflict. They do the work of drawing politically relevant lines of division and shaping the system of conflict that orders democratic politics and decision-making. Parties are not simply reflections of disagreements and conflicts that exist independent of politics. Parties and partisans organize conflict in the process of creating coalitions. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 193

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Parties are definitionally partial and oppositional, not unifying institutions — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 195; Parties are not passive expressions of classes but act back upon them — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 871; Many political acts spring from organizational needs, not structure (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Parties are not passive expressions of classes but act back upon them #corroborates (0.95) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 871
• Many political acts spring from organizational needs, not structure #corroborates (0.80)